The European Commission, Europe's central supranational bureaucracy, is often depicted as a playground for external interests. The scholarly literature offers a range of sensible explanations how the Commission position is bound by national, organised societal, or party political interests....

Persönliche Merkmale von Mitgliedern der Organisationseliten, wie etwa Beruf, Nationalität oder Parteizugehörigkeit, sind wichtige Bausteine, um politische Entscheidungen zu erklären. Sie rücken zusehends in den Fokus systematischer Analysen europäischer Politik. Die Europäische...

Was passiert, wenn sich EU-Mitgliedstaaten nicht an gemeinsam gesetzte Regeln halten? Die Beantwortung dieser Frage ist für die Glaubwürdigkeit des gesamten Integrationsprozesses von Bedeutung. Miriam Hartlapp zeigt, dass die Mitgliedstaaten ihren europarechtlichen Verpflichtungen in der...

Der Begriff des Politiklernens erfreut sich zunehmender Beliebtheit in den Politikwissenschaften. Besonders sichtbar ist dies bei den vielzähligen Arbeiten zur Offenen Methode der Koordinierung (OMK) in der Europäischen Beschäftigungsstrategie (EBS). Viele der Forschungsarbeiten weisen...

Substantial theoretical, conceptual and empirical advances have been made in research on the implementation of EU policies during recent years. However, our findings have remained ambivalent and our theoretical insights disparate. It therefore seems high time to address some issues that cause...

The article provides a detailed analysis of the employment situation of older workers (55- 64 years) in the EU member states. Using European Labour Force Survey data we systematically discuss the variation in the employment of older workers along the dimensions of gender, sectoral distribution,...

This paper presents first results from a collaborative research project which analyzes the national transposition, enforcement and application of six European labor law Directives in all 15 member states. Looking at the case of the EC's parental leave Directive (1996), it draws conclusions about...

The French and the German national parliaments are dominated by highly educated, older, and mostly male politicians. There are growing calls for a more balanced political representation of different social groups. This paper seeks to inform this debate by conceptualizing and measuring...

Substantial theoretical and conceptual advances have been made with respect to agenda-setting as a determinant for policy outcomes. An actor-centred perspective on frames and venues is core to this literature, structure as a single standing category has received less attention. In this paper we...

The European Union is often considered as a prime example of a liberal regulatory state. We argue, however, that being limited to the regulatory policy does not prevent the European Commission from pursuing political aims going beyond market efficiency. We draw up two ideal-type perspectives of...